- Basic personnel are making a comeback: The use of base defense personnel has increased from 23.5% of total games last season to 29.6% this year. While that may not sound dramatic, it represents a meaningful turnaround after years of steady decline when nickel personnel became the standard defensive package in the league.
- Quarterly coverage continues steady growth: On the defensive side of the ball, “limit explosive play” has become more than just a coaching cliché: it’s a guiding principle that shapes coverage decisions across the league. Defenses are increasingly prioritizing keeping the ball for their safety, and quarter-based coverage has become an important tool in this regard.
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There are many different ways to track the evolution of football strategy over time. While
The differences from year to year may seem minuscule, but are often just a small part of one
a longer development of a shift in scheme, play-calling strategy and overall football philosophy
yourself.
With 256 games already on the books from Week 1 through Week 17, the sheer number of games played this season provides a robust sample size for meaningful trends to emerge. In this article, we dive into five of the most interesting statistical stories that data has revealed.
One notable theme will loom in the background – although it won’t be directly addressed – the continued shift to larger, heavier offensive personnel groups across the league.
We have explored this trend extensively in previous articles, so here we will focus on the downstream effects it has created for opposing defenses.
The base staff is making a comeback
The use of base defense personnel has increased from 23.5% of total games last season to 29.6% this year. While that may not sound dramatic, it represents a meaningful turnaround after years of steady decline when nickel personnel became the standard defensive package in the league.
This shift is largely a response to the offensive trend toward size across the league. Offenses are deploying heavier groupings at higher rates, including increased use of multiple tight end sets – like the Rams’ heavy 13 personnel – and sixth offensive linemen to bolster run blocking and protect longer-developing pass concepts.
Defensive personnel groups have always been concerned with matching opponents on both size and speed, but the emergence of a new wave of speedy linebackers with coverage options has given coordinators more confidence in staying on base even in obvious passing situations.
The NFC North has led the way. The Lions, Packers and Vikings are all among the top six in starting personnel this season. Detroit in particular has leaned heavily on the approach. Led by the elite campaign of linebacker Jack Campbell (90.3 PFF grade), the Lions have used base personnel on a whopping 82.3% of first-down plays – more than double the league average.
Quarterly coverage continues to show steady growth
On the defensive side of the ball, “limit explosive play” has become more than just a coaching cliché: it’s a guiding principle that shapes coverage decisions across the league. Defenses are increasingly prioritizing keeping the ball for their safety, and quarter-based coverage has become an important tool in this regard.
Cover-4 and Cover-6 are particularly effective at deterring downfield throws. The alignment and spacing of the safeties in the quarters often ensures that every deep attempt is met with overlap assistance, turning what could be a one-on-one shot into functional double coverage by the time the ball arrives.
This season, Cover-4 and Cover-6 accounted for approximately 25% of all passing play coverage. While this represents only a three percentage point increase from last year, it continues a decade-long upward trend for quarters drafts – once considered special calls, now firmly entrenched as core defensive structures.
Playoff-bound teams lead the pack, most notably the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles. Vic Fangio’s influence is especially evident in Philadelphia, where Cover-6 alone is used on more than 20% of passing snaps – double the league average.
Is human reporting becoming a lost art?
In the opposite direction, man-to-man coverage has declined to the lowest usage rate in years. Just seven seasons ago, defenses played man coverage on more than a third of all defensive snaps. By 2025, that figure fell to just 22.6%.
Human coverage will never disappear completely – it remains a fundamental tool – but its decline is closely linked to the increase in the use of basic personnel. The two trends are not mutually exclusive. When defenses deploy three linebackers, they are much more likely to lean on zone concepts, reducing the risk of isolating linebackers in one-on-one matchups against faster receivers and tight ends.
That said, there remain some traditionalists who cater to men. Jim Schwartz’s Cleveland Browns are alone at the top of the league, playing man coverage on 45.1% of defensive snaps, by far the highest percentage in the NFL.
On the other end of the spectrum are several playoff contenders, including the Seahawks, Rams, Chargers and possibly the Panthers, all of whom rank among the lowest in the league in man coverage usage. While offenses continue to prioritize size, spacing and matchup creation, many defenses seem content to trade man-to-man aggression for structural soundness and preventing explosive play.
The decline in RPO continues
On the offensive side of the ball, one of the league’s more recent schematic evolutions continues to trend downward: the run-pass option. The honeymoon phase for RPOs appears to be over at the NFL level.
RPOs have accounted for just 8.1% of offensive plays this season, marking the third straight year of decline and the lowest usage rate since 2019. As defenses against conflicted players have become more disciplined and move downhill faster, the element of efficiency and surprise that once fueled RPO-heavy attacks has steadily eroded.
That trend has not continued in the college game. At the FBS level, RPOs made up 23% of offensive plays this season – nearly three times as many as the NFL – and unlike the professional game, there are no obvious signs of slowing down in usage. The simplicity, tempo control and quarterback-friendly nature of RPO concepts continue to make them a staple of collegiate offenses.
Like many schematic elements, RPO usage in the NFL remains highly team dependent. The San Francisco 49ers only called 11 RPOs all season, while the Kansas City Chiefs went in the opposite direction, calling 199.
Pre-snap motion continues its reign over the NFL
When PFF started tracking pre-snap shifts and movements in 2014, it was only used on 37.5% of plays on offense. Eleven seasons later, that figure has increased every year. In 2025, offenses included some form of pre-snap motion on 64.0% of plays, with every team except the New York Giants using motion at least half the time.
While usage continues to rise, the rate of growth is slowing. The increase from 61.5% last season to 64.0% this year was more modest than in previous seasons, suggesting offenses are approaching the upper limit of the amount of movement they are willing to use. At first glance, pre-snap motion has few inherent drawbacks other than the added complexity, which helps explain its widespread adoption. That same complexity may also explain why the average FBS team used motion on just 49% of plays this season – well below the NFL rate.
Taken together, these trends show how the league continues to evolve, but in more subtle ways than in recent years. The 2025 season has been shaped more by adjustments than revolutions. Offenses have grown bigger to punish lighter defensive personnel, and defenses have responded by becoming more flexible and leaning on coverages designed to limit explosive play.
Rather than going out of their way to stop everything, defenses are increasingly content to force offenses to execute long, error-free drives, betting that penalties, sacks or missed throws will eventually turn the ball. On the other side of the ball, pre-snap motion remains one of the few offensive tools that consistently creates an edge by revealing coverage, leverage and defensive intent.
With talent more evenly distributed across the league than ever before, these marginal gains matter. The teams that succeed in 2026 and beyond won’t be the ones chasing the next radical idea, but the ones best equipped to align these league-wide trends with their roster, quarterback and offensive identity.
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